Bed settees



July 12, 1955 D. J. HATTON 2,712,655

BED SETTEES Filed March 1, 1952 5 Dom/4 Jo/m Ham 1 gmzwzfi mw A'Ct om ays BED SETILEES Bonald Eehn Hutton, Dudley Port, Tipton, England, as-

signor to Vono Limited, Dudiey Zort, Tipton, England, a British company Application March 1, 1952, Serial No. 274,317

3 Saints. (Cl. 521) This invention has reference to improvements in or connected with bed settees or armchair-s of the kind which are convertible to admit of either a settee or chair formation or alternatively as a bed formation, and relates in particular to that type of bed settee or arm chair which incorporates a withdrawable leg or foot section normally located under the seat section but which can be withdrawn to form the leg or foot section when the structure is to be used as a bed.

The object of the present invention is to provide means whereby the upper and lower frames of the withdrawable section can be wholly or partially collapsed to admit of their ready introduction into and below the fixed seat frame and the incorporation therein of means whereby when the leg or foot section is withdrawn the upper and lower frames thereof are automatically expanded to raise the upper frame on to a level with the upper surface of the seat frame so as to increase the comfort of the user maintaining a common level of the seat and leg or foot sections when the structure is in use as a bedstead.

The invention consists of a bed settee or armchair wherein the withdrawable leg or foot section is provided with a pivotal parallel link connection between its upper and lower frames to admit of the partial collapse of the one frame towards the other frame, the upper frame of the leg or foot section having laterally extending pins attached thereto adapted to ride up an inclined part of each side arm when the leg or foot section is withdrawn from below the seat section to ensure lifting motion of the upper frame for the purpose herein set forth.

One means of carrying the present invention into practice will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a bed settee or arm chair in its normal position with upholstered parts thereof indicated by dotted lines.

2 is a side elevation of the bed settee or chair showing the upper and lower frames of the leg or foot section in their withdrawn position.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one end of the withdrawable foot section showing the upper and lower frames in their collapsed position.

Fig. 4 illustrates one of the brackets adapted to be secured to the side arm framework to ensure the lifting motion of the upper part of the frame forming the leg or foot section of the structure.

Similar reference letters indicate similar parts in the several views.

The supporting structure of the bed settee or chair comprises a pair of upstanding side arm sections 1 which are rigidly held in laterally spaced relation by a rectangular seat frame a fixedly mounted between the side arm sections f. The article of furniture to which the invention is applied may be called a settee if the seat frame is wide enough to accommodate seats for more than one adult. If the seat frame is only wide enough to acfl? 2,7l2,555 al lice Patented July 12, 1 .5 55

commodate a seat for one adult the article of furniture may be more properly denominated a chair.

Fixedly mounted along the inside lower edges of the side arm sections 1 are parallel tracks h which guide and support anti-friction rollers g that carry the inner end of the withdrawable leg or foot section of the bed settee or chair.

The withdrawable leg or foot section of the bed settee or arm chair is formed of an upper rectangular frame a and a lower rectangular frame b which are interconnected at each longitudinal side by pivotal parallel motion links 0 which normally admit of a collapse or partial collapse towards each other of the upper and lower frames so as to reduce the overall depth of the leg or foot section whereby it can be readily accommodated below the fixed seat section d. To the rear of the longitudinal sides of the top frame a are attached laterally extending pins a which when the leg or foot section a and b is withdrawn to its full extent (as seen in Fig. 2 of the drawings) are adapted to ride up inclined edges 2 of brackets e secured to the side arm sections 1 at the front part thereof whereby the top frame a of the leg or foot section is automatically raised to conform to the level of the upper surface of the seat section a as clearly seen in Fig. 2. When in this position it will be seen that the links c have moved over the centre when compared with the position of the links in Fig. 1 thereby maintaining an abutment between the front face of the seat frame d and the rear face of the upper frame a which prevents an accidental collapse of the leg or foot section. This motion is permitted through the parallel link connection c of the frames a and b of the withdrawable section so that this section now corresponds in depth to that of the seat section.

When the leg or foot section is withdrawn to its fullest extent a pull on the underframe b of this section Will cause the top frame a through the parallel link connection c to make a slightly rearward motion toward the front edge of the seat frame d as illustrated in Fig. 2 to close any gap which may obtain therebetween. The pull which is applied to the underframe b causes the aligned pins a on the upper section a to contact the rear face 6 of the bracket e which thus forms a limit motion stop for the upper section a and prevents any further outward motion of this section a.

A reverse motion of the underframe b of the withdrawable leg and foot section eventually through the pivoted link connection efiects a forward motion of the top frame a and subsequently the collapse of the top frame toward the bottom frame I) to admit of the reintroduction of the leg or foot section into and under the seat section d.

Brackets a mounted on the upper frame a carry the pins and brackets a which are rigidly secured to the upper frame a constitute distance pieces which limit the extent to which the frame a can be collapsed toward the frame b in that these brackets form corner contact bearing pieces between the two frames when in the collapsed position as clearly seen in Fig. 3. A front board is mounted on the outer or front end of the lower section b to close the gap between the seat (I and the underframe b when the assembly is in the position seen in Fig. 1.

The present invention is readily adaptable to a bed settee or arm chair of the kind wherein the side arms are formed as two separable sections to admit of the upper or superposed section being removed when it is desired to convert the article into a bed, the top surface level of the base part of the arms then being disposed in the same horizontal plane as the surface level of the central or seat portion I claim:

1. In an article of furniture such as a bed settee or chair having a supporting structure comprising a pair of upstanding side arm sections, and a seat section fixedly secured to said side arm sections and holding them in rigid spaced relation, in combination, a withdrawable lower frace slidably mounted .beneath said seat section, an upper frame, a plurality of parallel links supporting the upper frame from the lower frame, said links holding said frames parallel while permitting said upper frame to beelevated with respect to the lower frame, means on the side arm sections providing an inclined and a vertical guide way, laterally extending means on the upper frame for successively engaging the inclined and vertical guide way as the frames are withdrawn from their retracted position, a vertical surface on said upper frame for engaging said seat section as the upper frame is raised, said guide means and laterally extending means cooperating with said vertical surface to lock said upper frame to said side arm and seat sections, and means on the lower frame for stopping the withdrawal of the lower frame when the links reach a position inclined toward the seat section.

2. An article of furniture according to claim 1 having L-shaped brackets depending from the rear corners of the upper frame to engage the lower frame in retracted position, and the laterally extending means are pins mounted in the brackets.

3. An article of furniture according to claim 1, in which the lower frame extends forward of the lowered upper frame, and a footboard mounted on the lower frame to close the opening in' the article of furniture when said frames are stored, said footboard extending vertically substantially to the level of the seat frame and serving as a handle for withdrawing the frames.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 388,223 Rumpel Aug. 21, 1888 777,965 Linsmayer Dec. 20, 1904 1,473,370 Heller Nov. 6, 1923 1,572,375 Allemeier Feb. 9, 1926 1,737,604 Martin Dec. 3, 1929 2,164,438 Woller July 4,1939

FOREIGN PATENTS 37,170 France Oct. 25, 1930 (1st addition to No. 664, 553) 

